Sunday, December 22, 2013

New Year's Resolutions,
for the most part, play an important role in most everyone's life.To lose weight. Live life more fully. Be a
better husband, wife, or significant other etc.Value more what we have in our family and friends.And many more that I have missed. But have
you ever considered New Year' Resolutions as a part of your business and
managerial life?

So my last
Healthcare Marketing Matters blog for 2013 is about New Year Marketing Resolutions.
My own Top 10 list to get things
started. What are yours?

10. Focus on meeting the needs of the healthcare consumer
aka the newly insured.

9. Learn from the healthcare retail giants like Walgreens,
CVS Caremark and others. Healthcare continues to evolve into a semi-retail market
and what has worked in the past won’t work anymore.

8. Marry price to outcomes and be transparent to
the healthcare consumer. Prove value.

7. Integrate traditional, online and social
marketing strategies. All are complementary to one another and drive multiple
successes.

6. Innovate- again and again and again;

5. Foster a spirit of and demand marketing
excellence in the marketing department.
Good enough is not good enough.

4. Focus on the data and show ROI. If it doesn’t work
then stop doing it.

3. Stop
using the words "unique", "state-of-the-art", and anything
that is considered “buzz word" terminology in my marketing
communications. Unique can be duplicated
easily. State-of-the-art refers to yesterday's systems as things change so fast.
Buzz words quickly fall out of favor.

2. Bridge the divide between sales and marketing.

1. Serve and be humble, for working in healthcare
is a privilege, not a right.

It’s been a
most interesting year, HMM went over 5,000 page views a month and is now read in 52 countries around the world. There was
a lot of spirited discussion in LinkedIn groups about several of the posts. I fielded
calls on various topics from Bloomberg Weekly, Reuters, Associated Press, Crain’s
and Strategic Health Care Marketing (published December 2013). It was all appreciated and fun. But most of all thank you for reading, for
that is what really makes doing this worthwhile. I am taking a couple of weeks off.
See you in 2104.

Merry
Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Have a healthy, safe and
prosperous year.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

It’s the great healthcare experiment really when you stop
and think about it.Today, thousands of
individuals are going to public and in some cases private exchanges to purchase
health insurance for themselves and families. Different levels of plans, varied
coverage’s, deductibles and copays with open or limited networks, drug benefits
etc.

So the healthcare consumer is now making the grand
choice. Will they choose value by what they perceive based on experience, relationship
and no real outcomes data to make a rational decision to keep the doctors and
hospitals in their network? Or, will the healthcare consumer now shopper for
care, decide to choose by price and consider value as a given among all
providers.

There probably at this point no definitive answer to the
question. The signs are all around that healthcare
is evolving to a semi-retail market. And
the decision now facing healthcare consumers of choosing healthcare via
insurance by value or price will only accelerate change.

When an individual is facing a decision with multiple
price options, they will exhibit consumeristic behaviors and shop on price when
all else is perceived as equal. And
healthcare for all intent purposes, is the ultimate (and pardon my use of a
sports analogy, just can’t help myself) example of league parity in the minds
of consumers. Seen one doctor, seen one
hospital, and seen them all. For years
healthcare providers have offered up platitudes of world class care, best
doctors, high tech, Centers of Excellence and so on, that value is totally undifferentiated.
In the absence of information, markets like nature abhor a vacuum. Price fills
the void.

Now that the barn door is open and no getting the horse
back in, what can a healthcare provider do? No simple answer this time around.
Healthcare consumerism is a new phenomenon in healthcare. To adjust to that seismic
shift, the healthcare provider regardless of type will now need to get serious
about brand, outcomes, value, experience and price. Total transparency really.

Oh and one other thing, the conversation with the
healthcare consumer and newly insured is going to have to change from just
stating that we are the best, to here’s why we are the best and what you are
the best at. Can’t be great at
everything and the healthcare consumer already knows.

This is going to be a struggle for most healthcare
providers. It will be as much about
changing internally as externally. Going
from being in control of the process, to being subjected to the needs and wants
of consumers on a value, quality and price basis is not an easy
transition. Some will make and others
will fail. That’s life. That’s the
nature of markets.

Take a look at the marketing strategy and organizational readiness as
well as the consultants that you hire. Are they telling you here is your best
customer go forth and fill the beds, or are they preparing you to be a
responsive healthcare consumer-centric organization in how you approach the
market and win the confidence and dollars of the new healthcare consumer?

It’s the great experiment; healthcare choice
purchased on value or price. Something tells me that price will win the day.
The horses are out of the barn.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

With dynamic changes
taking place in the healthcare as it evolves to a semi-retail environment,
employment of physicians is seen as central to the success of hospitals and
health systems surviving in an era of reform.A side note to physicians, I believe that there will always be
independent practitioners, but that is a discussion for another day.

With this new
opportunity to reinvent, revitalize and recapture what previously before had
been an adventure on the part of hospitals with mixed results, its time to
discuss how one goes about marketing the employed physician.

It's easy to look at this
and say we'll just do what we did in the past in promoting employed physicians
and be done with it.That is a dangerous
mistake in the age of healthcare consumerism.The newly insured are expecting to have some level of choice, are
social media networked and will be controlling many of the purchase
decisions where previously, the healthcare provider drove many of those
decisions.

What is needed is a new
look at what you are doing and changing to meet the needs of the newly insured healthcare
consumer.

With great change comes
great opportunity.That is if one is
willing to embrace that change and find new ways of moving forward and creating
value.

Brand. Value. The
Healthcare Consumers Choice.

Communicate very
strongly how your brand and brand promise are associated with the employed
physician.Doesn't matter if he or she
is in a Medical Office Building (MOB) you own, Accountable Care Organization
(ACO) or Medical Home (MH) or a multispecialty group practice.Bring your brand to the forefront and brand
the doc to you. The physician represents the healthcare providers brand at an
individual level.Capitalize on that credibility
transfer opportunity and leverage it.

Communicate the value
that the employed physician brings to the community and the healthcare
consumer.Communicate the value that the
doctor brings to the brand. Stop talking
at people, talk to them. Talk to them with compelling value driven reasons and stories as to why they should select that doctor, or even why they should even considering switching
physicians.

Stop wasting money
putting ads in papers that expect people to take action simply because the
doctor is on your medical staff.That treats the healthcare consumer like they
are idiots.They're not. They are
demanding value and acknowledgement that they have a say in what's going
on.If you won't meet their needs they
will go somewhere else.

The newly insured healthcare
consumer is gaining market power as they reach into their pockets to pay those
high deductibles and co-pays. As the economic
cost rises for the healthcare consumer, so does their attention to outcomes,
quality, experience and price.

If you're not communicating brand, value and what's
in it for them for selecting the employed physician, then you can put it in the bank
that the healthcare consumer is will pass on byand go where they perceive the value to be greatest for themin line with the price they are paying.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Mistakes happen; for as healthcare organizations we are only human. And those errors whether they are care or everyday decisions can impact the patient experience positively or negatively. So the question becomes do you recognize when service recovery is needed acting swiftly and decisively, or do you wait until there is a complaint and then act after it was already realized that an error occurred?

I think it’s a valid question from a marketing standpoint for several reasons. With the growth of social media and actively engaged adults, they have become the new paparazzi and can do wide spread reputational damage in literarily the blink of an eye. Taking accountability and doing what is right improves the patient experience and satisfaction scores. And finally, when everyone is talking about what a high quality provider they are and to look no further, service recovery can positively impact brand by reinforcing the brand promise and brand message.

For example, I take 4,000mg daily of pharmaceutical grade fish oil to help me manage high triglycerides. I am also in an auto ship program with omegavia. Lovaza is not on the drug formulary for my PBM so I worked with my physician to find a suitable replacement. Well in November I received two emails on the same day that my monthly supply has shipped. I thought that maybe an error had occurred and a duplicate email was sent out.Sure enough the next day I received two separate shipments of my fish oil.

I contacted omegavia and talked to the off hours answering service and was told I would receive a call the next day. I also explained in the initial call that I wanted my December shipment suspended until January 2014.The call did come the next day, but it wasn’t the please explain to us what happened call. The call was the customer service representative apologizing for the double shipment.They were suspending my shipment in December and would resume in January 2014. Oh and that there was no charge for the second shipment because it was their error. Not only did I receive the call, but a confirmation email as well.

And it does have a financial impact to the company in terms of the free months dose, the suspension of one month shipment, as well as shipping and handling costs of probably around $120 or so. I know it’s not a great amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but the point is there was no hesitation on their part to make it right.

The real kicker in all of this was when they told me that they were proactively working with their shipping department to understand the root cause of the process failure and understand how the double shipment resulted to fix the process.Notice here that they did not throw anyone under the bus or say it was some unnamed person on the back office somewhere or a computer error. They owned up, realized the process had a built in error potential and saw this as an opportunity to improve.

Now when was the last time in a hospital or health system service recovery efforts did all of the above take place?

Please don’t go down the, “well this is pharma and retail and we are different argument”. Not really. While omegaviaoperates in healthcare retail environment, hospitals and health systems are moving to a semi-retail environment. In thisenvironment where the healthcare consumer with high deductible plans are paying higher premiums with significant out-of-pocket expenses, they will be expecting more from providers in the service recovery effort and patient experience. It is no longer about what the hospital or health system wants do, it’s about making the healthcare consumer, aka the patient, a customer evangelist and that can only be done through the patient experience and a service recovery process that is second to none.

Repeat after me, service recovery and experience is about the healthcare consumer not the hospital or health system.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not receive any kind of remuneration either in payment or in-kind gifts.This post was about my experience and where I believe hospitals and health systems need to go in their service recovery efforts as part of the patient experience management program.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

I saw something
the other day that really commanded my attention. It raised that old question related to marketing
effectiveness and efficiency. Is your marketing
regardless of the type of industry, driven by HIPPO?

Sounds interesting
you say? What is this marketing by HIPPO?Get ready because you may not like the answer.

HIPPO =
Highest Internally Paid Person’s Opinion

And the marketing
that I witnessed drove this point home. And the not so funny thing about it is
that the marketing department will be blamed for the nonsense when really, the
question should be was it a bad decision and performance by marketing, or was
this driven in a large extent by a highest paid person’s opinion.

That
happens a lot in healthcare. No marketing
science, no qualitative understanding of markets, just opinion, hearsay and
flavor of the day from reading an article or seeing a competitor’s
advertisement. No primary or secondary market research or understanding
customer needs except in the most superficial level. One maybe two people say
something and then it’s the whole universe acts that way.I am the highest internally paid person here,
so go do this. A competitor does this, so you do this. I have made up my mind
because I believe this to be true and I am the insert title here- CEO - EVP – VP,
etc.

Do you work
in a HIPPO marketing organization? Be honest now.

The characteristics
of such an organization are as follows: larger than life executive egos (big fish in a
little pond); lack of sustained adherence to mission, vision and values beyond
executive decree; short attention span due to constantly shifting plans and
priorities; the inability to execute operationally; constant crisis and chaos;
and adherence to that “this is the way we have always done it so way we are
doing it that way”.Or what I call
slavery to the past because I say so.

As we
continue on with HIPPO characteristics: communication is poor
interdepartmentally; marketing is seen as doing “stuff”;and the best one of all - proposed marketing
solutions are seen an “elegant” and not as the right way to build revenue and
brand because they aren’t expedient.It’s all about the HIPPO and what they believe regardless of any lack of
foundation in reality.

In today’s
world of lightning fast change, social media and the growing power of the
healthcare consumer with more of an economic stake, you can’t afford ineffective
and inefficient healthcare marketing. That doesn’t build a strong brand. That doesn’t
provide you with a competitive advantage. And most importantly, it doesn’t engage
the healthcare consumer in any meaningful way.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Seems like an
innocuous question/statement.But it’s a question
that can be fraught with staff unease, unexpected healthcare consumer
resentment, missed opportunity and bad PR if it is not handled correctly.

It’s not a
question of whether not you should ask that question as a healthcare provider. No
margin, no mission.There are very
appropriate reasons for asking, and includes walking a fine line with tax exempt
status and the legal requirement of caring for all who come through the doors
seeking medical treatment. The real question is how is the organization
preparing to engage the newly insured, current patients and the healthcare consumer
making choices in which healthcare providers to engage?

How one handles
the question goes beyond staff training, scripting and role playing. The conversation
and ask begins well before anyone ever sets foot in door of the healthcare
provider. It may be that the healthcare provider has lost the potential advantage
in securing the high ground in this part of the healthcare reform equation.

Individuals
and families are selecting high deductible plans to reduce their premium costs.
Employers are going to defined contributions, creating private exchanges, increasing
employee contributions for not only the cost of insurance, but the deducible and
co-pays as well.And even the newly insured
that could be eligible for the expanded Medicaid programs will still have to
meet spend down requirements of the Medicaid program before full coverage will
kick in. Just because the program is expanded for initial eligibility requirements
doesn’t mean in the least that the base regulations of the program have
changed.

Several
months ago I wrote about the opportunity in the market place that healthcare
providers had in educating the healthcare consumer abut exchanges, plans and choices.It was at that moment in time that those discussions
could have begun with the process of the payment ask, connecting it to high deductible
plans and general changes in how they will pay for healthcare. Little if any activity
on the part of hospitals, health systems and other providers recognized the new
dynamics and took marketing and PR steps to head off the coming challenges.

Now that the
ship has sailed, how are you going to actively take control of the conversation
and educate the healthcare consumer before they ever walk in the door seeking
treatment? This is about setting realistic expectations in the context of experience
as well as establishing the role and responsibility of the healthcare consumer
in all of the discussions.

Easier said than
done and we all know that. But with all
the issues around the exchanges and failures therein,the news that people are selecting high deductible
plans and the coming sticker shock because they really don’t understand what
they are buying, you have the chance to
hit the reset button and start anew.

So instead of
advertising those wellness bus tours, free gifts for a colonoscopy or even connecting
with all those high quality physicians on staff without outcomes transparency
in any of it, maybe it should be meaningfully engaging the healthcare consumer
about the real cost of high deductible plans, prices, the value of the medical
service and their accountability and portion of cost they will bear?

The risk is because
as we all know, that the process for asking for payment after the
fact or even when someone walks in the door and is sitting at the desk, is not
going to go well and there will be human error. As a tax exempt healthcare provider, you will
be the evil greedy healthcare provider, and it's a perceptional battle that is unwinnable.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

The eight hundred pound gorilla
is in the room and it’s not going away any time soon if ever. With the newly insured,
current and former patients and the healthcare consumer all facing increasingly
larger out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare, how will you explain pricing?

Case in point. A couple of weeks
ago I was exhibiting the signs of a heart attack. So after being sent to the
ER by my primary physician, an EKG and blood work was done and after several hours
I was admitted to the 23 hour observation unit. The other day I received the bill
for $23,000 which works out to around $1,000 an hour. And yes it was sent to my insurance carrier
and I have my portion to pay. But there was no explanation of how those charges
were determined. Here is the bill; you
owe; so pay it.

But it got me to
thinking. I had no idea how the $23K was arrived at and whether or not that was
representative of the most accurate value for the care received, especially
when the total bill would buy a nice car for that type of money. I mean, a less
than friendly radiologist, an arrogant hospitalist who was an internal medicine
physician, and a cardiologist who seemed like he did not want to be there
added to the wonder if it all. I especially liked being awakened at 12:30 PM for
a saline IV that had to be started because a doctor ordered it. My biggest
chuckle was that I could not get a Tylenol for a headache, but there was a physicians
order for morphine. Go figure. It’s probably a standard order set and no one is
paying attention.

I wonder how many meals I was charged for since I only ate once because no one explained to me that I had to order each meal off a menu and never did have breakfast because of that little omission?

As healthcare evolves to
a semi-retail model with the healthcare consumer aka the patient at the center
of it all, explanation of pricing, what care and test were provided is no longer
something that hospitals, health systems and other providers can afford to
ignore.Can you really imagine going to
buy a large ticket item and not knowing all charges? And healthcare is a large
ticket item.

This is a reasonable expectation
for the healthcare consumer, to be able to know all that was done and how much
it cost in detail. The healthcare
consumer is paying more out of my pocket. You can bet they want to look at billing
by line item. And they really don’t have the time to chase down with your billing
department the detail.

It’s called accountability
and it’s a two way street. Accountability
on my part to understand the who, what and where of treatment, and accountability
on your part to be price transparent. This will lead to some uncomfortable discussions
with the healthcare consumer as they seek to understand it all, but that is why
you have a marketing department. They need to be involved by understanding the informational
needs of the healthcare consumer, design of the bills and training of staff to
handle inquiries.

Healthcare is changing
and the old ways of doing business no longer work.Because if you don’t change billing practices
and become more price and treatment transparent, someone legislatively, or through
the courts will force you too.

Its your choice on price transparency.
Inform the healthcare consumer now, or inform them later when you are forced too.
Either way it’s going to happen.

Now where is the address
for the FTC and my Senator and Representatives?

Sunday, October 27, 2013

I have to admit, this is
a pet peeve of mine, disingenuous hospital advertising. In a day and age where
healthcare is evolving to a consumer centric, semi-retail model, some hospital
marketers and C-suite leadership continue to treat the healthcare
consumer like they are incapable of making informed choices.

With the healthcare consumer
having a higher cost stake in the process with larger deductibles and co-pays, your
price, and outcomes data readily available, it would seem that the time for
change has come.

Remember, when you are
marketing to individuals, they don't become a patient until they receive a
service from you.So in one-third of the
time in their interactions with you, the healthcare consumer is only a
"patient" during diagnosis and treatment. Two-thirds of the time they
are not patients, and most likely are arguing with your billing department
about the charges.

Arguments aside, what
should hospitals be advertising to create an unassailable market position, a
strong brand, as well as an enlightened and informed consumer?

Is it the "we are
unique and world-class", best doctors, hundreds of locations, even though
The Joint Commission was just there for a sentential event?

Our technology is
state-of-the-art.Never mind that a new
technology was just introduced and you don't have it.

Another winner; we have
the most shiny trophies and quality awards for several services. Oh, and even
though we don't have a quality award for all services, if everybody else was as
good as us message to go with it, “a 100,000 lives would be saved
annually"! Really.

How about the ever
present focus on the physicians with messaging about having the best primary
care or specialists in the region that drones on about everything other than healthcare.Prove it.Maybe the healthcare consumer will take you seriously when you finally report
Dr. Hodad and remove him from your medical staff.

I think, that pretty
much for the most part, sums up the current state of hospital advertising.And when several hospitals are staying all of
these things at the same time in a market, do you really believe that the
consumer is paying any attention at all, when there is so little
differentiation, it all looks like
"me too" and just shouting for attention?

It makes the Board,
senior management and physicians feel good, while your audience receives
absolutely no information that will help them make some of the most critical
choices and decisions in their life.

The time has come
healthcare providers to provide meaningful information in the marketplace that
will allow the healthcare consumer to become informed, educated and
participatory in the care decision-making process.

You should be transparent
and talking about your outcomes and prices.The healthcare consumer is hungry for information and searching the internet
as well as other sources about you and how you perform. They are paying more of
the cost. Demanding more say in what goes on. And don't like being treated like
they are some small child who can't make a decision.

To use an often quoted
metaphor, the wave of change is upon the hospital industry as we move from
provider-dominated and controlled decision-making model, to a healthcare consumer
and patient-directed, controlled model.

Your choice so chose wisely,
the future of your organizations depends on it.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

True story. "Well, you can always bring her back to
the hospital if she still has trouble breathing", said the home health care
nurse sent from the hospital less than 2 hours after a patient had been
discharged.Oh, and did I tell you that
her eye was infected, almost fell going to the bathroom in the hospital and informed
the nurse, had slurred speech and could barley ambulate?That patient had been cleared by all to be
discharged from the hospital.

And then the
family hears or sees an ad about all the wonderful quality care awards from
third parties that they receive, and how many lives would be saved if everyone
was as good as them.

What do you
think the now healthcare consumer, formally the patient thought?

Countless
times every day, the patient experience goes fails the test.Big things and small things alike that take
place in the healthcare encounter all add up to one patient experience, good or
bad.

When healthcare
executives are surveyed, the majority say that customer/patient experience
management is a critical business success factor along with patient safety and
cost reduction.But at the same time,
the majority of healthcare CEOs admit that they really don't know where to
start on successfully managing the experience.

Experience management is
about changing the way you interact with the individual or family from start to
finish.Not just managing the experience
at isolated points along the care continuum. It's not about just focusing on service
recovery like something was wrong with a hotel stay. Managing the experience requires a complete
understanding of what the patients expectations are, not yours. Experience management
is culturally and organizationally uncomfortable. And that is because it's not
about you anymore.

So when the patient
experience fails, your reputation, your brand and your future in a risk or
value-based payment environment fails as well. And then there are those readmissions
penalties you face when a patient like this comes back in less than 30 days.

You should see what's
being said on facebook and in social media circles from others that chime about
how bad their experience was at that particular hospital. Do you still think
social media is nothing more than a billboard?

Yep, the chuckle factor
is really high when those quality award ads are heard and seen.Pay attention to the patient experience, and
pay attention to the marketing. They are not separated, but closely related.

The newly insured healthcare
consumer is paying close attention now. It costing them money, they have too.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

In the new world of
healthcare where price, quality and a newly insured healthcare consumer is paying
more out-of-pocket costs for healthcare, social media marketing represents an opportunity that can
be used advantageouslyto meet
healthcare consumers demands for a better experience.

Social media represents
a great opportunity for establishing a one-on-one relationship with the patient,
aka the healthcare consumer, directed by the healthcare organization that
breaks from the pack, by creating a social media healthcare experience that is
memorable, exceeding an individual or families experience and expectations.

Most healthcare organizations
are still stumbling with using social media and the online experience to drive
differentiation, meaningful information and experience. Think
of this in terms of a channel of communications and engagement that meets the
healthcare consumer on their terms but with your messaging.

In any case, when you
look at your social media strategy and presence, does your social media
experience:

ØDelight
your customer?

ØCreate
sustainable differentiation?

ØIs
adaptable to new opportunities?

ØLeverages
your investment?

ØDeliver
in every situation?

ØConnect
with the newly insured?

ØDoes
it engage the healthcare consumer?

ØProvide
answers or guidance looking for solutions to medical challenges?

ØDefine
experience, outcomes, price and value?

Or, is it just pushing out
information that is that you have deemed valuable to you, but carries no relevant
meaning for the healthcare consumer?

This is the lens of
criticality needed to objectively evaluate efforts.If it's not doing these things, then chances
are nil in delivering an exceptional social media experience.But for that matter, neither are your
competitors.

Make your social media presence not just
"good enough" but exceptional.

On another note, my apologies
for missing a post last week. I was out of town with my wife and daughter last
weekend. Alex is a left-handed pitcher on a 16U a fastpitch softball college exposure
team and we were in Des Moines, Iowa for the ASA 16U A Heartland Showcase Series College
Exposure Tournament. Saturday was
playing for college coaches and scouts. Sunday was a single elimination tournament.There were 27,16U A teams playing. We made it to the
final four and a three way tie for 1st place because the final games
were canceled due to rain. It was a good time.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Here comes
the newly insured. They are not in ACOs. Some will have chosen high deductible plans. Some have even chosen narrow networks to limit
their premium cost.Some of the newly
insured will be in the expanded Medicaid program.What we do know is that it will be a potpourri
of ages, sex, income, health status, relationship status and education. We know that there will be a lot of people who
never had access to health insurance.

So how do you
market to the newly insured, knowing that the probably haven’t seen a doctor in
a few years? They most likely don’t have a primary care physician. And when
they needed care as the uninsured, they most likely used Emergency Rooms as their
primary source for medical care considering themselves to be ER frequent flyers. They will be less healthy and in need of
navigation though your healthcare system. They
can be a financial godsend to your hospital or a drain depending on their medical
condition and source of payment.

Because you
waited until now to start marketing, the chance to establish a relationship with
the newly insured prior to the opening of the HIX and that insurance purchase
has been lost.Now you have to compete.
And telling the newly insured you have the best doctors and most caring staff
is right out of the nineties and meaningless.

The healthcare
market is changing and these people are paying out of pocket and they will be paying
attention to price, quality and experience. So it is really along these three dimensions
that you need to focus your integrated strategic marketing efforts.

Push the
newly insured to the primary care doctor.Pull the primary care doctor to the hospital.

Push the
newly insured from the emergency room to free standing clinics and other less costly settings.

Engage the
newly insured in meaningful ways along price, experience and quality.

Look out for Walgreens
and CVS Caremark, Rite Aid and others whose retail clinic strategy is perfect
for the newly insured, and will limit their out of pocket expenses better than
you can. Look out for the hospital or health
system that will be the first in your market to engage the newly insured in meaningful
ways along price, experience and quality.

The age of semi-retail
healthcare is now beginning.That means
the healthcare consumer, aka the newly insured, have some leverage and bargaining
power.Meet their needs and establish a meaningful
relationship on their terms, or keep doing what you have always done in marketing
and watch them walk away.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Patient
experience and satisfaction is no longer a nice too have, but a got to have in the
evolving consumer-centric healthcare market place.Consumers are paying more out of pocket and
when consumers pay more they expect more.A better healthcare consumer and patient experience in the end means
a more compliant patient pre and post treatment. Higher level of service and medical process
satisfaction brings the healthcare consumer back in a sea of providers who all
offer the sameness.It is one of the primary
drivers for a reason to return. And when all things are equal and undifferentiated,
experience and satisfaction become a major determination of return and for their
recommendations of you.

Difficult to
achieve and tough to competitively beat once you have it, experience and satisfaction
with your medical products, clinical services and processes regardless of the
vertical, be it specialty pharmacy, medical device,pharma, hospitals, doctors etc., will drive
revenue.Revenue from the standpoint of
Pay-for-Performance (P4P) programs and volume from healthcare consumers aka
patients, selecting you in a very commoditized and provider undifferentiated
healthcare market place is at stake.

Not everyone
will be in an ACO or risk-sharing agreements.Some will choose narrow networks to save a buck on premium. Fee-for-service
will still be around for awhile.The opening
of public insurance exchanges in October, 2013, Medicaid expansion in some states and the now becoming
ever more popular the private insurance exchange where companies are moving to defined contribution
(see Walgreens, Sears and others in recent times), means that you have a direct
to consumer opportunity along very different dimensions then in the past.

The
healthcare consumer of today will view your services as: value= f(cost, quality, satisfaction) as compared
to the near past where value= f(cost,
quality). Value as described by the healthcare consumer here is the result of
the function of cost, quality and satisfaction with you.

Why is it important:

High levels
of experience and satisfaction are a powerful differentiator in your market.

Done correctly,
your experience improvement and satisfaction program becomes the ongoing Voice
of the Customer (VoC) program to drive real organizational change.

I

t is a
strategic and tactical edge for your brand and your marketing communication
efforts.

Think
customer evangelization.

Think of the
power of a high-quality experience and exemplary satisfaction and what that can
do for your organization. Think of what it can do in your effort to
differentiate.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Sometimes,
another organizations PR missteps are an opportunity to learn how not to handle
a PR crisis.Just ask the any of the hospitals
and health systems that have been in the media the past few weeks with HIPAA
violations for data beaches. And what I
have seen from the healthcare consumer side in the coverage and their responses
have been arrogance, apathy and really stupid responses by senior management.

I mean
really, “We had a panic button and security camera.” Does it matter in your response that the theft
happened after hours? Or the, “We had 60
days under the law before we had to report it.” How do you think the public reads that answer
of hiding behind regulations when their personal data is at stake?

In an age of healthcare
model evolution from provider-dominated models of decision making to consumer-directed
models, those bygone days of being able to mismanage a PR crisis and response and
get away with it are gone.

Is your
response to dive for under the desk? Do you send out poorly prepared underlings,
to face reporters and the public? Does leadership, make proud pronouncements at
the outset, that could come back to haunt you because at this point, you just
don't know?Do you react as an arrogant organization with
the, "How dare you question us response"?Do you think that it can never happen to
you? Do you have a crisis communications plan in place?

Every healthcare
organization will face a PR crisis. How you handle the communications, will
determine the amount of brand damage and length of time people remember, the
good and the bad. In this age of social
media and the Internet, there are no, "We just need to wait 3 days to
weather the storm", anymore.

Many times
organizations respond with:

·Lack
of organizational understanding of the need to handle a situation as crisis
communications;

·Different,
conflicting senior management messages;

·Testy
responses to questions;

·Lack
of preparation by speakers in understanding the seriousness of the
communication;

·Poor
speaker body language;

·No
overriding organizational message;

·Organizational
arrogance;

·Lost
messaging opportunity;

·Appearance
of blaming others;

·The
organization appearing not accountable;

·The
organization furthering to anger the media;

·No
response at all with the "it's just a three day story and will go
away";

·Sending
out unprepared underlings to face the media;

Is it not
true that any press is good press! Every
day, someone somewhere faces a crisis communications issue which is poorly handled.

By following these planning guides, you can weather any storm, limit
reputation, revenue and ultimately brand image damage:

·Understand
the nature of the situation;

·Be
transparent;

·Be
proactive in how you intend to address the situation;.

·Limit
the amount of time senior leaders i.e. the CEO or president speak;

·Understand
that your reputation is built up over a long time and can be destroyed in a few
short minutes;

·Remember
that it is not just a three day story;

·Watch
your body language;

·Know
your facts about past performance, reporters will be prepared;

·Learn
from others;

·Each
year engage in a day of media training for executives. Dealing with the media
is a learned skill that the majority of executives do not have.It is not as easy as it looks.

Most
importantly, engage the media all the time all year round not just when you
have a problem.By establishing positive
media relations with the good you do, you won't necessarily be cut any slack in
a bad situation, but you will get the opportunity to tell your side. You won't if you don't have good media
relations already in place.

Plan now for
that crisis communications event, and you will better off as a prepared
healthcare organization.